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Galápagos Hawk

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iGalápagos Hawk

Image:Galapagos hawk.jpg

Conservation status

Image:Status iucn3.1 EN.svg
Endangered (EN)

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Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Falconiformes
Family:	Accipitridae
Genus:	Buteo
Species:	B. galapagoensis

Binomial name

Buteo galapagoensis
(Gould, 1837)

The Galápagos Hawk, (Buteo galapagoensis), is a large hawk endemic to the Galápagos Islands, where it is one of the few terrestrial predators.

At 56 cm in length, it is the islands' only resident hawk and has no natural enemies. The adult Galápagos Hawk is almost uniformly dark brown with the female being larger than the male. The juveniles are lighter brown and heavily mottled.

This species nests in trees, and the nests can become quite large, as they are reused with new twigs added at each breeding attempt. Up to three young may be raised at a time. This hawk practices cooperative polyandry, and as many as four males may mate with a single female and all will aid the female in caring for the eggs and young (Faaborg et al. 1980).

The Galápagos Hawk hunts and scavanges, and its prey includes a wide range of Galápagos animals including lizards, young iguanas, native and introduced rats, doves, mocking birds, centipedes, grasshoppers, and various young seabirds. The female tends to take larger prey than the male (de Vries 1976). The food spectrum varies from island to island, but on every island this species is also a major scavenger. It will feed on virtually any dead animal, including the carcasses of sea lions, marine iguanas, seabirds and even fish.

It seems to be particularly fond of goat meat. On many islands where hunters are trying to eradicate goats, hawks will follow the hunters until they have made a kill. After the kill, the hawks appear surprisingly rapidly.

No other bird of prey is as fearless as the Galápagos Hawk can be. Where they occur, these birds will come and investigate visitors, often approaching within a few yards. In 1845, Charles Darwin wrote:

A gun is here almost superfluous; for with the muzzle I pushed a hawk out of the branch of a tree." The juveniles especially are the most curious. Walking along the rim of Alcedo Volcano, I have been shadowed by young hawks for over three kilometres at a time.

Study of mtDNA haplotypes (Bollmer et al, 2005) of the Galápagos Hawk and its closest relative, Swainson's Hawk, indicates that the former's ancestors colonized the islands approximately 300,000 years ago, making the birds the most recent arrival known (compare to Darwin's finches, which are estimated to have arrived some 2-3 million years ago).

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2006). Buteo galapagoensis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is vulnerable

Bollmer, Jennifer L.; Kimball, Rebecca T.; Whiteman, Noah Kerness; Sarasola, José Hernán & Parker, Patricia G. (2005): Phylogeography of the Galápagos hawk (Buteo galapagoensis): A recent arrival to the Galápagos Islands. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39(1): 237–247. DOI:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.11.014 (HTML abstract)